Answers to your parenting questions.
Ask AF: Assuming Friends Were Adopted
Answers to your parenting questions.
Ask AF: Validating a Child’s Past
Answers to your parenting questions.
“Talking About Adoption at Bedtime”
My daughter brings stuff up at bedtime. Most five-year-olds do; they don’t want to be left alone to sleep. She likes when I tell her stories in the dark and rub her back. Who wouldn’t like all that? Aside: bedtime can—if I let it—take forever.
Ask AF: Talking About and Getting to Know Birth Siblings
My 11-year-old has two younger birth siblings who were adopted by another family. That family recently moved into our community. My son often asks if he has siblings. I have not told him yes or no yet, and now it’s so late.
Documentaries About Adoption
These nonfiction films are sure to open up dialogues about the subjects’ experiences and your family’s story long after the last frame.
20 Questions Kids Ask About Adoption
Your child has questions about babies, birth mothers, and the way he joined your family. Now, you have the answers.
Noteworthy New Adoption Reads
Read any good adoption books, lately? we asked our readers, and got an emphatic Yes! Here are your favorite adult and children’s titles published within the last year, with our picks added to the list.
Ask AF: How Do You Explain International Adoption vs. Open Adoption?
Answers to your parenting questions.
Helping Your Child Who’s In a Funk
When Janice and Paul’s daughter turned 7, they breathed a sigh of relief. Last year Emily’s favorite word was “no,” and she talked back constantly. Alas, now she seemed worried and sad. She felt that no one liked her at school, that the other kids thought she was weird.
Making Memories
Digital scrapbooking is the easy, new way to preserve your memories–and adoptive parents are leading the way!
Ask AF: Feeling Left Out of a Birth Family
Our seven-year-old biological son seems to swing between feeling left out because his siblings (both adopted) have “other families” to feeling that they can’t be part of our family because they have “other” families.
Adoptees and the Seven Core Issues of Adoption
Adopted persons tend to experience seven core issues related to their adoption. Discussions of adoption over the years have often overlooked the pain and struggles of adoptees, but identifying these core issues and helping children integrate them as they grow validates their experiences, decreasing feelings of being different and isolated.
Birth Parents on Their Minds
Your teen probably spends a lot of time thinking (or fantasizing) about her birth mother. Here’s how to get some of those thoughts out in the open.
Parent-to-Parent: The Great Gotcha Debate
The term “Gotcha Day” has ardent fans and strong detractors in the adoption community. We asked Adoptive Families readers how they feel about it, and whether they use the term in their family. Here’s what you said.
The Continuing Adoption Conversation
Around age six or seven, children start to wonder, “Who am I?” This is when our children can truly understand that joining your family through adoption means they left another.
Ask AF: When Mom Feels Hurt
Answers to your parenting questions.
Ask AF: Telling Our Child We’re Adopting
Answers to your parenting questions.
[Book Review] In My Heart
Molly Bang’s warm, reassuring children’s book provides a tender reminder of the bond between parent and child, even when they are apart all day long. In My Heart doesn’t mention adoption, but the illustrations led my son to say, “Look, Mom! He’s adopted, like me!”
[Book Review] Telling The Truth To Your Adopted Or Foster Child: Making Sense Of The Past
Betsy Keefer Smalley and Jayne E. Schooler’s book will help parents who are struggling to find the right words to tell an adoption story in a positive and realistic way.